Day 2.

An advantage with wild camping, you are always up and away early. I was up at 7.15, coffee brewing while I struck camp, packed and cleared up and on the trail for 8. It will get earlier as we move out of winter but while it's still dark and cold, I'm staying in my maggot... 😋 walked a couple of miles from Chapel and stopped for a back stretch and a brew at Anderby where I was met by our good friend and Social Media guru, Simon Noden and his dog Woody. Thanks for the company and the chat Woody, I know we had to have Simon along as he was driving you home... 🤪 I jest, Simon has been instrumental in helping me prepare for this challenge and I very much enjoyed your company mate.

After Simon left me, full steam ahead for Mablethorpe. Wandering along the promenade daydreaming with the surprisingly warm January sun on my back, a young lady out for a jog stopped running and walked along with me. We got chatting and I was amazed to learn she is a serving soldier in The Royal Engineers, currently based at Digby in Lincolnshire. We had a good chat about our both being members of that illustrious Corp, Once a Sapper, always a Sapper... 😎✊but, the conversation turned to her voluntary work with the RNLI and she explained the sad reality that there has been such a sharp rise in the numbers of suicides, by men finding themselves in that dark place where they see no other option but to walk into the sea to end it all.... 🥺 Obviously, something the brave men and women that volunteer for the RNLI have to deal with. Can I please say...

If you're reading this blog right now and you understand what it is to be in that dark place, maybe you've been at the bottom of that big black pit, perhaps you're there now, looking up but struggling to see any light... struggling to work out how you might be able to get out.

I implore you, please look up, focus more clearly and look harder, there is a face up there looking down, a hand stretching down to you to help you out. You just need to take their hand, let them help you. Your problems will be unique, just as you are unique but talk to that person that wants to help, help them to understand your pain and let them help you get out of that dark place. I pray you can then learn those skills that will stop you falling back in there again. Never stop looking up for that face, for that hand... please...

Thank you young lady Sapper, for taking the time to walk and chat with me, it was a pleasure meeting you. Hurrah for The CRE.

I soon arrived in Mablethorpe and was met by Mark who had kindly offered me a bed for the night. Mark cooked us an amazing meal of Roast Lamb with all the trimmings, I had a hot shower and we'd just settled down to relax with a coffee when I received a text from an unknown number... A group of Marks fellow Freemasons from Louth & Alford were waiting in the pub across the road and would be most upset if we didn't join them for a beverage... 🫣🍻

Thank you Mark, for your incredible hospitatlity and generosity, I arrived in Mabo to be greeted by fellow Mason, you welcomed me into your home and made me so very welcome, I left having gained a true friend. 😉🤝